Ben's Bellings

Alihi was nominated by her friend Emma Derstine, who also is 8. The girls were in the same class last year at Borton Primary Magnet School, 700 East 22nd St., and Emma said she was impressed by how Alihi was always nice to everyone.

Emma and her mother, Brook Billings, regularly go to the Ben's Bells studio to help make bells for other people and Emma decided Alihi deserved one, too.

"Alihi is a thoughtful person," Emma wrote in her nomination. "When she gets more of something than someone else, she will share with them. When someone is being mean to her, she will say sorry when she shouldn't have to. She always accepts an apology.

"If she makes up a game, everyone is allowed to play it. Not once have I asked to play and heard her say 'no,'" Emma continued. "She never screams at people and she compliments everyone on their work. I think that she deserves to be belled because she thinks of others before herself."

Alihi said she felt special to receive a bell. "I was really surprised," she said.

Her mother, Marian Douris, told her she'd have a surprise visitor on Friday afternoon, but she wouldn't tell Alihi anything else. She really didn't know what to expect when Emma showed up. And then the strangers with the pretty little bell arrived.

"I really liked what my friend did for me," Alihi said. "It was really kind of her."

Douris also was touched. Alihi was born without a pulmonary artery in her heart, a condition called truncus arteriosus. She's had three open-heart surgeries since then. "Because of all this, she's become a very compassionate human being," Douris said. "She expresses love constantly. She's a very sweet person, and I feel so blessed to have her in my life."

The Ben's Bells project began in March 2003, one year after Ben Maré Packard died of croup, just before his third birthday. His family hopes it reminds people to be kind, to help ease one another's pain.

The latest phase of the project began in September, weekly "bellings" for those among us who make our community a better, kinder place to live.

If you know people who deserve a Ben's Bell, nominate them to be "Belled." Go to www.929themountain.com/ pages/jennie_itm.html and click on Ben's Bellings. To learn more about the project, go to www.bensbells.org.

And check the Star each Saturday to see the latest recipient.